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Crayfish Soup

A soup made from crayfish shells, butter, anchovies, fish stock, French rolls, and lobster spawn, finished with crayfish meat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Crayfish and lobster work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 100 recipes. Both carry octanal, which smells fat, soap. The science ↓

Crayfish Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the shells

  1. Remove the meat from the crayfish and set it aside on a plate.

  2. In a mortar, combine the crayfish shells, butter, and anchovies. Pound the mixture well.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a stewpan with 1 quart of fish stock and bring to a boil for 1 hour.

Strain and finish the soup

  1. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve back into the stewpan.

  2. Add 3 pints of fish stock and the crumb of 2 French rolls. Bring the soup to a boil.

  3. Remove from heat.

  4. Rub the soup through a tammy (fine sieve).

  5. Add pounded lobster spawn and mix well.

  6. Keep the soup hot without boiling.

  7. Add the crayfish meat to the finished soup before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Crayfish + lobstertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together100 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  2. Crayfish + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together343 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  3. Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Crayfish + fishtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together90 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  5. Fish + lobstertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together326 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Crayfish
Shells build the flavour base and the meat is added at the end for texture.
Butter
Adds richness and carries the flavour from the shells into the stock.
Anchovies
Contribute a deep savoury, salty note that rounds out the soup.
French rolls
Their crumb thickens the soup and gives it body.
Lobster spawn
Adds colour and a rich, concentrated seafood flavour.

The step that matters

Keeping the soup hot without boiling. Once the soup is finished, boiling can break its emulsion of butter and fat, making it look greasy and separated, and can dull its delicate flavour. Holding it just below a boil keeps it smooth and warm.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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